retsdon

Not exactly surprising news. I remember about 10 years ago a friend teaching at the Rajaphat ttelling me about some visiting Chinese exchange students compared to the locals. The Chinese would snap up everything he gave them and more. Learn 10 new words a day? No problem - off their own bat they'd learn 15. Ask them to write a 200 word essay? They'd write 250 words and hand in a rewritten correction the next day. With the locals? Getting them to do anything, and certainly anything properly, was like pulling teeth.

ASEAN is going to be very scary for Thailand.

I notice that there is always a prediction for improvement no matter the subject. There is very rarely a report of improvement having happened.

Sales of cars and light trucks are way up near records in the US, taking away any BS about the global economy. LINK

One explanation...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/05/debt-on-wheels/

Consumer spending down = a decline in consumer loans = good. But consumer spending down = declining sales = declining employment opportunities = consumer spending down = etc, etc = bad. It's the classic economic death spiral. At some point more of the outstanding loans are going to go bad, despite people's efforts to pay them down. Either which way, it looks like the party might be over for a while.

Take a walk through a few major shopping malls and note down the signs being posted outside the entrances of shops and restaurants stating staff wanted.

Jobs are available for those seeking them. Problem for those unemployed are they are either too lowly educated for the jobs, or too choosy.

...agreeing that the jobs now are seen as too low for many young Thais.

We have the same problem with young Emiratis and Saudis in the Gulf.

"Who pointed the gun at her?" - If Prayut doesn't know, we've all got problems...

No one pointed the gun at her. She is a drama queen seeking attention. No one pointed the gun at her.

Try to google the word "metaphor":coffee1:

Thanks for the advice, but I think simile is the correct word in this case.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/what-is-the-difference-between-metaphor-and-simile/

This is very upsetting...particularly to my wife and I. We spent many mornings in that park...just before sunrise. In the 3 years that we lived there, we went every day, and saw nothing like this. There was a gruesome murder of a bar owner by his own staff, at his house...but not random violence at the park.

Police and military are helpless against this kind of violence.

I know it sounds bad....because it is.

uhh, Police and military are NOT helpless against this kind of violence. They have these really cool weapons called GUNS. You should get one. It levels the playing field immediately! Your fear will will fly away...

An illusion unfortunately. Statistically, if you own a self-defense weapon, you or a member of your family will be twice as likely to end up a as homicide victim than if you don't.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/dangerous-gun-myths.html?_r=0

If this bloke was exhibiting no symptoms, tested negative, and was only being asked to report as a precaution. - why on earth would the authorities authorize a nationwide manhunt for a 'possible ebola patient' via the national media? What - it never occurred to them that there would be just a smidgen of alarm at the notion of someone with Ebola gadding about Bangkok? Any black man who so much as coughs is likely to find that he's cleared the street within twenty yards of himself...

Where is Israel on that list that terrorizes Arabs from their beginning of being in Palestine ?

The organisation (a privately funded Think Tank) who create the report in the OP defines terrorism; one of the criteria is non State 'actors'.

Some people will agree, some will not that Israel is a State sponsor of terrorism. Personally I do not, oppressive and unfair policies in some circumstances 'yes'.

Yes, well. If it's a State Actor, all fair - if it's a non state actor, it's terrorism. What sort of nonsense is that? Violence is violence whoever delivers it.

Absurd report. What is classified as ''terrorism' is for the most part straightforward civil war. For example, Thailand has a separatist South that has chosen the violent option to achieve its goals. These people have all undoubtedly read Mao's writings on asymmetric warfare. So they know how you fight these wars. You make them unwinnable ffor the incumbent government. And you do that by undermining the government's primary job, which is to provide security for its citizens.

Does nobody read anymore?

You're wrong. Murdering school teachers is terrorism. Bombing shopping malls is terrorism. Going after military targets is war.

Next ..

We bombed German cities in WW2. Next..

Absurd report. What is classified as ''terrorism' is for the most part straightforward civil war. For example, Thailand has a separatist South that has chosen the violent option to achieve its goals. These people have all undoubtedly read Mao's writings on asymmetric warfare. So they know how you fight these wars. You make them unwinnable ffor the incumbent government. And you do that by undermining the government's primary job, which is to provide security for its citizens.

Does nobody read anymore?

island life made some other asinine comment about people having accidents all over the world, and then blame it ONLY on Thailand when they have an accident here?

tell that to the two British cyclists that were killed by a 25 year old truck driver, who ws charged with killing them and driving recklessly,

and who served no time,

and was fined 300 baht

Driving stupidly - I don't know - plenty of us have done it, especially in our youth. There but for the Grace of God, quite honestly. Not comparable with raping someone, smacking their head in, and then re-positioning the corpse to humiliate their memory.

I feel for families. Hope they found peace one day.

Ive lost meny friends for bikes and normal deaths 2. Yet never i have blamed place where they been at time.

People die and get robbed everyday everywhere at world.

Im pretty shure Koh tao aint top of that list .

Thats all ive tryed to say.

Quess thats hard to understand.

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.'

Nobody asks to be cast into the role of 'good men'. Mostly, it's a rotten hand to be dealt. But sometimes, that's just how the cards fall. You either step up or your world, and your children's world, takes a step back into the darkness.

It might be unfair, but that's just how it works.

Has it been revealed in public how these 2 devious Burmese managed to steal all cctv footage(except for the 2 minute blurry running man clip) from all businesses on Sairee beach close to where they were alledged to have murdered the 2 Brits?

It is such a shame they did this, especially for themselves. Having the cctv footage of the argument in the bar before the murders would have likely helped the 2B's case.

Has it been revealed publicly that there was a row in the bar, outside the bar, or anywhere before the murders?

I have followed the case but can't find where any witness, especially the friends of the victims, or other foreign tourists have confirmed this. (Ignoring the ramblings of McAnna). There must have been witnesses.

Sorry if I've missed that, but I can't find it. Surely the Thai police (and hopefully the British police) would have taken detailed statements from witnesses who were with the victims on the night of the murders?

The Thai police have issued statements basely supporting whatever outcome they hoped for.

You would need to look at foreign news sources and facebook pages. Just google it, you will find various sources.

Police here mostly do what they want to do, to suit their own purposes. .

No they don't, really. Mostly they do what they're told to do. If you have sufficient status in Thailand, you own the police. They work for the status quo. That's why a bigwig can just summon up policemen to check on his house while he's away (leaving a sign in slip that they've been there). That's why a bigwig can have a police escort to the golf course (who hang around in the car park while he completes his round), etc, etc. No police officer ever questions what he's told to do by his superiors, no matter what it is. And no senior police officer ever questions what he's told to do by HIS superiors.

The RTP is perfect microcosm of perfect Thai society (from the perspective of those who run the show).

Retsdon,

Out of curiosity, how many senior police officers do you personally know well enough to have discussed this with?

None. But half my in laws are mid-level RTP. And we"ve talked about how it works.

Has it been revealed in public how these 2 devious Burmese managed to steal all cctv footage(except for the 2 minute blurry running man clip) from all businesses on Sairee beach close to where they were alledged to have murdered the 2 Brits?

It is such a shame they did this, especially for themselves. Having the cctv footage of the argument in the bar before the murders would have likely helped the 2B's case.

Has it been revealed publicly that there was a row in the bar, outside the bar, or anywhere before the murders?

I have followed the case but can't find where any witness, especially the friends of the victims, or other foreign tourists have confirmed this. (Ignoring the ramblings of McAnna). There must have been witnesses.

Sorry if I've missed that, but I can't find it. Surely the Thai police (and hopefully the British police) would have taken detailed statements from witnesses who were with the victims on the night of the murders?

The Thai police have issued statements basely supporting whatever outcome they hoped for.

You would need to look at foreign news sources and facebook pages. Just google it, you will find various sources.

Police here mostly do what they want to do, to suit their own purposes. .

No they don't, really. Mostly they do what they're told to do. If you have sufficient status in Thailand, you own the police. They work for the status quo. That's why a bigwig can just summon up policemen to check on his house while he's away (leaving a sign in slip that they've been there). That's why a bigwig can have a police escort to the golf course (who hang around in the car park while he completes his round), etc, etc. No police officer ever questions what he's told to do by his superiors, no matter what it is. And no senior police officer ever questions what he's told to do by HIS superiors.

The RTP is perfect microcosm of perfect Thai society (from the perspective of those who run the show).

2 disastrous failed policies come back to bite Thailand on the bum ( ...red, yellow, pink responsible, doesn't matter). First, failure to invest in a quality vocational education system ( although they did get some parts of it, relating to hospitality/cooking, close to ok, the rest is pretty awful). Second, the failure to pursue a quality english language program for students. They were on track about 30 years ago with some good initiatives but the have fallen away. A tragedy. A huge missed opportunity/own goal.

Also disappointing is the level of underemployment, almost 'shared poverty'...3 people doing the job of one and getting paid a pittance. Look no further than Big C or any of the mega stores to see that system in operation. I don't know what future these kids can have but it can't be good.

You need to have worked in the Thai education system to fully comprehend just how utterly atrocious it is. The whole edifice is rotted through with corruption, ignorance, laziness, and indifference. Education itself is barely on the agenda. The system is simply a cash cow to be milked for all it's worth by anyone who can get their snouts to the trough. A terrible, terrible indictment of the country.

When we were last through Swampy in October, I'd never ever seen it so quiet at immigration. The Thai passport line was the longest in the hall. I'll be interested to find out how it is when Mrs R goes back in December. Me, I'm going elsewhere for my break for the first time in about 15 years......

I work with Chula engineering grads.. Their english stinks when they first start work (English is the primary language in the workplace) but they learn quickly on the job. They run rings around the expats who dont speak a lick of Thai

Well, if they needed a 550 TOEFL before starting their degree, their English shouldn't be too bad at all. It doesn't mean they can speak any of it, mind you, but it'll be in there somewhere. It'll just need practice and confidence to get it out. TOFEL isn't much of a test of English productive proficiency, but you still need to know the language to get 550. Quite honestly, I know plenty of native speakers who'd struggle their way through the use of English and reading sections......

Copycat vioence is nothing new in Thailand. I' sure there must be members who remember the 'Samurai gang' craze which plagued some northern towns over the winter of, if I remember rightly, 2001-2. Basically, it became the thing to do to form a gang on motorcycles and go out and attack some other hapless sod riding along minding their own business. A few people were killed, and a fair number badly cut up. It was almost nightly for a week or two. In Chiang Rai they even killed a man and his wife on their way into the market to sell vegetables. I remember turning down the offer to rent a very nice house just outside town because I most certainly didn't fancy the ride home in the dark.

It all died out in the end. Nobody ever came to court, but the police went round to a supposed ringleader's house and he somehow managed to get shot in the head 'while trying to escape arrest,' They then visited a few other people's houses with the 'we know where you live too', line. And as I say it stopped. It was mostly kids apparently, some from good families. I had a police captain as a student at the time and he basically told mr the story.

But it was bad for a while. It had begun in Lampang and at its worst there were attacks in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Maesai, all copycat and all different groups. It seems the Thais always go in for imitation, no matter what...

Engineers and languages rarely go well together.

.... The country needs engineers as does the UK. The engineering is far more important to the country than a foreign language......

The language isn't important.

I raised this exact point at what is an almost exclusively science and engineering program university here in the Middle East. Why not just teach the undergrads the degree material in their native language and save a whole raft of grief and tears? The reply, from an Arabic speaking engineering professor, was that 90 percent of the material which the students need to research and learn is written and produced in English. Consequently there's no option but to learn English.

No doubt the same issue is faced by prospective Thai engineering graduates as it is by Arabic ones.

Their current requirements are either a 6 in IELTS or a 550 PBT TOEFL score. Either of those scores would get someone onto a US undergraduate course, albeit with a probabable mandatory one semester prep program to complete first.

Droping the entrance requirement to 500 would put Chula on a par with unis n the Middle East. - not great but not disasterous either. But as others have pointed out, the true measuring stick isn't who you allow to start, it's who you allow to finish. No idea how Chula compares on that score...

I hate to say it but at least there is a minimum score required. In Saudi if a local goes to University he is not allowed to fail.

h

We fail quite a lot of them actually. It depends on the university I suppose......

Thailand was in fashion. Now it's falling out of fashion. Modernization, higher prices, and unplanned development of what used to be its main attractions also don't help. It's still OK, but there are better alternatives out there. It's becoming the Ford Cortina of tourist destinations.